Sustainable Development In Pakistan Research Articles

Analyzing the Interplay of Financial Inclusion, Income Inequality, and Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Evidence from Pakistan

The current study uses annual time-series data from Pakistan from 1998 to 2022 to investigate the complex link between financial addition, economic inequality, and carbon emissions. The Auto-regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model is used in the study to look at the dynamic correlations between variables including financial addition, income inequality, and carbon emissions. The empirical data indicates that increasing financial inclusion leads to a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. In contrast, economic inequality, energy consumption, and growth have a positive correlation with CO2 emissions. These conclusions show the complicated relationship between socioeconomic determinants and environmental effects. Furthermore, the study's implications extend beyond Pakistan, giving valuable information to policymakers dealing with similar difficulties in other developing countries. This work contributes to the global discourse on sustainable growth and climate action by promoting economic addition and addressing financial disparities. It emphasizes the importance of implementing specific policy actions that promote both economic fairness and environmental sustainability. Such approaches have the potential to not only reduce carbon emissions but also encourage inclusive growth, promoting the wider aim of sustainable development in Pakistan and abroad.

Financial Innovation and Sustainable Development in Pakistan: An Empirical Study

Pakistan is facing several challenges including economic, social, energy and environmental. and is one of the most climate affected country. Henceforth, it is recommended to unearth the factors of sustainable development of Pakistan. This study explores the effect of financial innovation on sustainable development along with energy and trade openness as control variables. Results confirmed that long run relationship exists among the mentioned variables. Financial innovation is positively affecting sustainable development in long run as well as in short run. Likewise, energy is positively influencing sustainable development in both time spans whereas trade openness and energy only influence sustainable development in long run. Financial sector keeps on finding ways for innovation and utilizing fin-tech for ensuring and enhancing financial innovation. Government also must care and adopt policies that are encouraging financial innovation for to ensure sustainable development in Pakistan.

Water management and sustainable development in Pakistan: environmental and health impacts of water quality on achieving the UNSDGs by 2030

Water security is an emerging national security challenge for Pakistan. Combined with water scarcity, the quality of drinking water is rapidly deteriorating; the available drinking water is contaminated for many reasons, impacting the ecological chain in a pronounced way. Despite the government's strong commitment to the provision of clean drinking water to the citizens, and the use of smart technology for irrigation, which consumes 60%−70% of the water, to conserve the available water resources, the implementation of the policy is a daunting challenge. This study argues that surface and subsurface drinking water in Pakistan is being contaminated very quickly, creating several health risks and potential human security issues. The study examines the quality of drinking water through laboratory tests by collecting samples from selected urban and rural areas as a case study and examining them against the minimum safe ranges given in the international and national parameters for clean drinking water. As a result of laboratory testing, it has been revealed that the quality of drinking water in Pakistan is deteriorating sharply and the developing situation, if not addressed in time, has the potential to become the biggest health risk in the coming years. As water quality continues to worsen and water availability is gradually decreasing, the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) on water by 2030 is becoming a remote possibility. As a timely input to relevant institutions and government ministries, this study comprehensively highlights the challenges of water scarcity and water quality in Pakistan and provides recommendations for addressing the multidimensional water security issues in a sustainable manner and achieving UNSDG number 6 on access to clean water and sanitation for all by 2030.

Dynamics of Formal and Informal Institutions on Environmental Quality in Pakistan

Environment and economic growth have been interlinked with each other since the beginning of mankind. The institutions (formal and informal) play an important role in the determination of the relationship between income and the environment. Many indicators measure the environment, i.e., air, land, water, and emissions. There is a need to develop a comprehensive measure of environmental quality, measuring all dimensions. The study aimed to develop a multidimensional and comprehensive measure of environmental quality and to analyze the role of formal and informal institutions on the environment and economic growth. Furthermore, the policy measures are suggested based on the results of the study. The environmental policies are better reinforced through good governance and improved institutional quality. To achieve these objectives, secondary data has been used from different international agencies of developed and developing countries with a special focus on Pakistan. The long-run and short-run relationships have been identified by using co-integration analysis and causality analysis. The results of the empirical analysis show that Institutional quality exerts a positive impact on economic growth. Further, Economic growth follows a decreasing trend in CO2 emissions, which validates the existence of EKC theory. The study also found that better institutions/policies cause higher income and improved environment in the long run, although it hampers growth in the short run. The study considers the vital roles of economic growth, institutional quality, and public awareness for a sustainable environment. To facilitate sustainable development in Pakistan, policymakers should be encouraged to prioritize policy design and implementation.

Gender Construct for Sustainable Development in Pakistan: Evaluating Alignment of Education System with the Religious Ideology

Gender construct plays a role in activating or deactivating gender equality in society, which is an essential factor for sustainable development. An education system is a primary source of building and mainstreaming social values, especially gender constructs, and Pakistan’s education system aims to provide equal access and un-discriminatory education to both boys and girls, aligned with religious ideology. The current research evaluates the alignment between the gender construct informed by religion in the education system of Pakistan and the gender construct informed by the local religious perception. To achieve this purpose, this research captures the perceptions of local experts on gender constructs, guided by the education system and underlining religious (Islamic) ideology via semi-structured interviews. The research identifies that the obsolete interpretation of religion, aligned with the local interpretation, guides biased gender constructs through the education system. The current research has identified the leverage points to transform the current education system of Pakistan into a sustainable education system by promoting religiously acceptable gender-inclusive education.

Longitudinal Analysis of Sustainable Development in Pakistan: Trends and Hindrances to Youth Development

This study examined the longitudinal trends and hindrances to sustainable development in Pakistan, with a specific focus on education, poverty reduction, and gender equality. Using official statistics from various national surveys and reports, the study analyzed inter-provincial development from 2001 to 2020. Content analysis and time series forecasting were used to identify discrepancies and predict future scenarios. Modernization and Path-dependency theories are employed to identify hindrances to development. A secondary data collection method was utilized for this study. The core research objective was to analyze the hindrances to sustainable development in Pakistan, particularly in the areas of education, poverty reduction, and gender equality. The major findings uncovered that in Pakistan despite being a signatory of SDG, there is limited implementation of these goals. Poverty and illiteracy level is high in far-flung areas of the country, especially in Balochistan. Moreover, for youth, there are various challenges like poverty, illiteracy, and gender inequality.

The Public Procurement System in Pakistan: A Critical Analysis

This research paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the public procurement system in Pakistan and explore contemporary electronic/online procurement methods to enhance transparency. The study employs a two-fold approach: initially showcasing the existing procurement landscape in Pakistan and subsequently proposing modern approaches for implementing a transparent electronic procurement system. A thorough literature review is conducted, incorporating publications, journal articles, government documents, regulations, laws, news articles, webpages, and a dissertation related to public procurement. The analysis extends to incorporate lessons learned from the procurement experiences of other countries, offering valuable insights for potential improvements in Pakistan's public procurement system. Using a conceptual analysis technique, the current tendencies and progress in procurement practices within Pakistan's public sector are extensively elucidated. The findings of this study contribute significantly to the understanding of the public procurement system in Pakistan, highlighting both its strengths and areas requiring improvement. Moreover, the proposed electronic procurement system, informed by international experiences, serves as a practical solution to ensure transparency, efficiency, and compliance within the public sector. This research paves the way for future studies and policy recommendations that can enhance procurement practices and ultimately foster sustainable development in Pakistan.

The Symmetric and Asymmetric Effect of Defense Expenditures, Financial Liberalization, Health Expenditures on Sustainable Development

This study examines the short run, long run, and causal relationships among financial liberalization, healthcare expenditures, and defense expenditures on sustainable development in Pakistan covering the period from 1971 to 2017. The paper also explored the asymmetric relationships among the target variables. To explore these relationships, ARDL and NARDL Models are utilized. Additionally, advanced econometric techniques such as Maki cointegration and quasi-GLS unit root are used to take multiple structural breaks into account. Maki cointegration results show a stable long run relationship between the underlying variables. The findings of ARDL suggest a positive effect of financial liberalization and health expenditures while the negative effect of military expenditures on sustainable development. NARDL estimates suggest strong asymmetry as sustainability responds to positive (negative) shocks in militarization, health expenditures, and financial liberalization differently. The Toda-Yamamoto causality test shows that any policy to target health expenditures and financial liberalization significantly alters sustainable development and vice versa. For robustness checks, FMOLS and alternative proxy of sustainable development are used. The key findings posited the need to shift military expenditures to health expenditures and financial markets to achieve sustainable development goals in Pakistan.

A Logistic Modelling Analysis for Wind Energy Potential Assessment and Forecasting its Diffusion in Pakistan

There is increased focus to harness renewable energy resources in the 21st century to contain climate change and attain energy security. In this context, wind energy is attaining a significant marketplace to meet the ever-increasing electricity demand. This study, as such, undertakes wind energy assessment and forecasts wind power market penetration in Pakistan considering three different scenarios for the period 2020–2050. The modeling approach of this study is based on the Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm (LMA) optimization method, which is used to estimate the parameters of the logistic model to improve forecasting precision. It is revealed that around 55, 64, and 73% of wind potential could be technically exploited under each of the three scenarios, respectively. The Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) for each scenario are also estimated. The anticipated annual abatement of GHG emissions and CERs earnings at 30% capacity utilization factor is found to be 158 million CERs by the year 2050. These results suggest that wind energy offers great potential to attain energy security, environmental stability, and sustainable development in Pakistan. This study would assist energy professionals, government, and stakeholders to undertake wind energy market assessment and devise appropriate energy management plans.

The role of Financial Development and Technological Innovation towards Sustainable Development in Pakistan: Fresh insights from consumption and territory-based emissions

• Inspecting financial development, economic globalization and technological innovation with consumption and territory-based emissions. • Employed novel dynamic autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) model. • Frequency domain causality is applied for the short-medium and long-run links. • Financial development and economic globalization have a positive effect on the environment. • Technological innovation reduces consumption and territory-based emissions. In the contemporary world, environmental problems are a major human concern. The status of the environment and its management are prerequisites for every country's sustainable development. Following the Paris Climate Summit (COP21), Pakistan has amplified its efforts to address environmental issues. In this pursuit, this study aims to provide a new perspective by examining the impact of economic globalization, financial development, energy use, economic development and technological innovation with consumption and territory-based emissions from 1990Q1 to 2019Q4 in Pakistan. The study used Dynamic Autoregressive-Distributed Lag (ARDL) simulations and Frequency Domain Causality (FDC) methods. The empirical evidence reveals that financial and economic development stimulate both consumption and territory-based emissions in the short and long run. However, energy use intensifies consumption and territory-based emissions only in the long run. Also, in the short-run economic globalization adversely affects consumption and territory-based emissions while in the long run rises just consumption-based emissions. However, technological innovations decrease both emissions substantially in the long term. Finally, FDC outcomes endorsed the hypothesis. The study suggests that policymakers discourage non-renewables and increase renewable energy use to decrease consumption and territory-based emissions. The results would help Pakistan reach more eco-friendly energy technologies and a more sustainable energy environment to accomplish SDG 7 and 13 goals.

Nexus between Sources of Electricity Production and Environmental Degradation in Context of EKC Hypothesis: A Time Series Study for Pakistan

This time series study is carried out to determine effect of sources of electricity production on environmental degradation in Pakistan in context of environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. Moreover, this study also examines effect of rural and urban population on environmental degradation. This study considers carbon emissions from electricity and heat as a proxy for environmental degradation. Unit root tests are applied to determine level of integration of time series variables. Bounds test is applied to examine long run relationship among variables. This study finds that hydro, natural gas and nuclear sources of electricity production have negative significant effect on environmental degradation whereas electricity production from oil sources has positive and significant effect on environmental degradation. Electricity from coal has positive effect on environmental degradation but its effect is not significant. Results of the study confirms EKC hypothesis in Pakistan. Besides, results indicate that rural population and urban population is negatively and positively associated with environmental degradation respectively. This study suggests that energy policy has to be design in such manner that on one hand, it tackles energy crisis, on other hand, it leads to sustainable development in Pakistan.

IMPACT OF OFFICIAL DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF PAKISTAN

This research paper aims to find out the relationship between Official Development Assistance and sustainable development in Pakistan. Time series data was taken for the period of 42 years (1976 -2017). Sustainable Development is a dependent variable for which proxy variable of Adjusted Net Savings has been deployed. ODA (% of GNI), Inflation, Per Capita GDP and Trade (GDP %) have been used as explanatory variables. Augmented Dickey-Fuller Test has been applied to examine the nature of the data as time series data may contain unit root problems. ADF test confirms mixed order of integration for the selected variables, hence Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Approach was applied to find out the long-run relationship among the considered variables. Estimation of Error Correction Regression resulted in a significant long-run relationship between ODA and Sustainable Development. ECM Regression also signifies the negative and significant value of the speed of adjustment term confirming that the model is stable and convergent towards the equilibrium. Overall results of this study confirm a positive and highly significant relationship between ODA and the measure of sustainable development in Pakistan. Therefore it is recommended that attention should be given to drawing on foreign assistance and it should be subject to the transparent and efficient practices applied in the Aid Allocation. It significantly improves the overall welfare of Pakistan.

Parent Enablers of Education Support for Young People with Hearing Impairment in Pakistan

This article examines the support received by young people with hearing impairment from parent enablers of education in Pakistan. In this ethically designed research, the society’s learning pathways of strong and weak knowledge and education centralised the voice of young people with hearing impairment as a methodology to evaluate society’s influence on parent enablers support, including from for-profit and not-for-profit education. The semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 young people with hearing impairment, 10 each from for-profit and not-for-profit education. The case-by-case analysis of young peoples’ voice showed that in strong pathway, the binding together of family support in education with society formed young peoples’ equal but different identity that shaped an imbalance in gender and social choice of impairment over poverty with restricted translation of for-profit education in employment outside the family. In weak pathway, the family support in education disconnected from society formed young peoples’ same but unequal identity that shaped conflict in gender and social choice of poverty over impairment with limited conversion of not-for-profit education in local employment. In conclusion, alignment of society and parent enablers of education with reference to gender is required for young peoples’ entry in outside and local employment for sustainable development in Pakistan.

Integrating Indigenous perspectives and community-based disaster risk reduction: A pathway for sustainable Indigenous development in Northern Pakistan

UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework of Action 2015–2030 place great importance on including Indigenous communities in disaster risk reduction (DRR) planning through community-based strategies. However, working with Indigenous communities requires developing a holistic understanding of the complexities of Indigenous worldviews, knowledges, and practices that influence Indigenous DRR. To date, efforts to do so have been limited. To fill this gap, we combined systems theory and symbolic interactionism as holistic philosophical lens to explore the complex interactions of individual and contextual factors that influence DRR in a remote Pakistani Indigenous community. A synergy of critical Indigenous methodology, grounded theory, case study and ethnography as research methodologies led to employing conversations, yarning circles and participant observation as data collection methods. The data from nineteen participants were collected, interpreted and analysed with the help of a local Indigenous co-researcher over the period of four months. The emerged grounded theory identified eleven categories pertaining to the facilitators and barriers of community’ DRR. The local culture Pukhtunwali and its components, Islamic teachings, good physical health, NGOs, community organisations and community's adaptive capacities facilitated DRR; whereas, lack of community-based DRR structure, inadequate welfare services, some religious beliefs, poverty and climate change hindered DRR of the community. The categories were weaved together to generate a core category that indicates that development agencies specialising in different areas need to work with Indigenous communities in interdependent and complementary partnerships for sustainable development in Pakistan. We offer our recommendations to accomplish genuine interdependent and complementary partnerships.

Assessing and overcoming the renewable energy barriers for sustainable development in Pakistan: An integrated AHP and fuzzy TOPSIS approach

The growing environmental, economic, and social problems have forced governments and policymakers to ensure a sustainable energy future by deploying renewable energy technologies. However, the various barriers impede the development of renewable energy technologies. Therefore, this study identifies the seven-renewable energy barriers and twenty-nine sub-barriers, which obstruct the development of renewable energy technologies in Pakistan. Then, this study proposes various strategies to overcome these renewable energy barriers. First, the Analytical Hierarchy Process method assesses and prioritizes renewable energy barriers and sub-barriers. Then, the Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution method evaluates the strategies for sustainable implementation of renewable energy technologies. The results of the AHP method reveal that “Economic & Financial,” “Political & Policy,” and “Market” are ranked as the most critical barriers in the deployment of renewable energy technologies. Besides, the results of the Fuzzy TOPSIS method indicate that “Capital Subsidies,” “Feed-in Tariffs,” and “Direct, Enabling, & Integrating Policies,” are the most feasible strategies to overcome these barriers for the successful implementation of renewable energy technologies in Pakistan. This study shall assist the governments and policymakers in focusing their future efforts in deploying renewable energy technologies for sustainable energy planning and development.

Journalism for sustainable development: The imperative of journalists’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information for promoting sustainable development in Pakistan

Pakistan is currently facing severe challenges for sustainable development, including a lack of safety and governance, demographic issues, poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, gender violence and inequality, injustice, water shortage, energy crises, rapid increase in pollution and climate change. In addition, the country’s progress towards development and adaptation strategies is quite slow. This study recognizes that journalism has a very crucial role in many aspects of sustainable development in Pakistan, ranging from facilitation of good governance to social cohesion, peace, public participation, empowerment and inclusion. For this purpose, journalists need freedom of expression and require unrestrained access to information. However, Pakistani journalists often confront legal and other restrictions to practicing these two rights, resulting in a lack of their ability to report on critical issues especially relevant to sustainable development. Therefore, drawing on the development communication theory, this study identifies the areas of sustainable development that are reported most by Pakistani journalists. It strives to find out whether Pakistani journalists receive training for development journalism. It also analyses the extent and the ways journalists’ rights to freedom of expression and access to information are restrained when reporting on issues of sustainable development. The study uses thematic analysis to analyse the gathered data through a quantitative method of survey and a qualitative method of in-depth interviews.

Assessing and Prioritizing the Climate Change Policy Objectives for Sustainable Development in Pakistan

The world is facing the observable and direct impacts of climate change in the shape of extreme weather events, irregular precipitation, glacial melt, sea-level rise, an asymmetric average temperature trends, higher oceanic temperatures, damage to natural ecosystems, and biodiversity. In 2015, collective wisdom stirred the global community to agree upon two unprecedented milestones in recent human history—the Paris agreement and sustainable development goals (SDGs). The twin global agreements set a platform for collective efforts to secure socio-economic and climatic sustainability. Pakistan also joined the board to put forth policy interventions for the mitigation and adaption of climate change risks to maintain symmetry between the environmental quality and economic development. The government of Pakistan (GOP) formulated the National Climate Change Policy (NCCP (2012)) and passed the Pakistan Climate Change Act (PCCA (2017)) to provide an impetus for the implementation of the NCCP. Yet, an appropriate assessment and prioritization of the objectives of the NCCP are indispensable for productive and effective policies to achieve the targets. This study serves this purpose by prioritizing the climate change policy objectives (CCPOs) based on symmetric principles, i.e., energy, transport, urban and town planning, industry, and agriculture as criteria, with 17 sub-criteria in total. The fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) results show that the energy sector is the most pivotal while implementing the NCCP. Energy production is the most critical area that needs mitigation policy intervention for shifting the energy mix of the economy from high-carbon to low-carbon energy. The fuzzy AHP analysis further revealed the railway, population and urbanization, air pollution, crop growing practices and techniques as the most important related to transport, urban planning, industry, and agriculture sub-criteria, respectively. The fuzzy VIseKriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) analysis showed the ranking of the CCPOs from high to low through the integration of policies, institutional capacity building, water security, natural resource management, natural disaster management, environmental financial structure development, and social sector development. The findings of the present research would be helpful for experts and policymakers to re-examine the NCCP and put forth action plans to achieve sustainable climate and SDGs.

Impact of Crew Training and Safety Management System on Operational Management in Aviation Industry of Pakistan

Aviation plays a fundamental role in the growth of trade, tourism, economy as well as sustainable development in Pakistan. The two main influential factors Crew Training and Safety Management impacting operations of Engineering Management was found on the basis of literature and analyzed. Primarily, the numerous organizations training methodologies to get their crew staff training was collected from both primary sources that’s questionnaire instrument and secondary sources which is Literature. The reliability and validity of the instrument was tested with the help of Cronbach Alpha and the survey questionnaire was distributed to obtain primary data. The used Non-Probability Sampling technique analyzed thru Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. It was revealed that both the variables i-e Crew Training and Safety Management have a significant impact on improving aviation operational management. Therefore, the management should take remedial measures to work out on Crew Training and Safety Management factors that may augment aviation operational management according to latest National Aviation Policy 2019.

Development of drought hazard index for vulnerability assessment in Pakistan

Drought is a silent meteorological disaster that spreads over time, affecting water availability for agriculture and livelihood in any region. The prediction of drought is a complex phenomenon; however, the negative impacts of drought are mitigated by monitoring drought events over a region. The present study provides spatial and temporal drought climatology over Pakistan, using 60-years (1951–2010) observational gridded data (0.5° × 0.5°) of precipitation from Global Precipitation Climatological Center and soil moisture from Climate Prediction Center. Using precipitation and soil moisture datasets, a novel drought hazard index is developed to determine drought vulnerability across different districts of Pakistan. Our findings identified 19 districts that are extremely vulnerable to drought, with northern regions being vulnerable to mild drought, whereas central and southern districts are vulnerable to high drought events. By using standardized precipitation index and soil moisture anomaly, six severe drought years were identified as 1952, 1969, 1971, 2000, 2001, and 2002 in different parts of the country. Deficiency of monsoon rainfall is a major cause of droughts in southern and rain-fed regions. This study is helpful for drought managers, hydrologists, and contingency planners to prepare mitigation and adaptation plans toward sustainable development in Pakistan.

Nexus between sustainable entrepreneurship and environmental pollution: evidence from developing economy.

Today, society is seeking solutions to achieve sustainable development, through association between entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable development has become a topic of great apprehension. In this perspective, this article aims to link environmental responsive entrepreneurship with sustainable development through empirical evidences from developing country. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to validate the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis to confirm the achievement of sustainable development goals in Pakistan. We use the combined mean estimator of the autoregressive distribution lag model and GMM model to determine the long-term relationship between the variables and analyze the environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis. We found U-shaped environmental Kuznets curves in Pakistan. Further results show long-term relationship using the PMG-ARDL estimator. Our findings indicate the presence of EKC, U-shaped EKC. This means that at a certain level of economic growth, a 1% increase in per capita income can lead to reductions in environmental pollution by 2.88%, 4.54%, and 2.48%. Therefore, governments and policy makers should strengthen policies to reduce environmental pollution and, more importantly, formulate green financing policies to encourage aspiring environmental entrepreneurs to establish environmentally driven enterprises, promote the use of environmental products to reduce environmental problems, and achieve sustainable development in Pakistan.